What happened to the women? Gender and Reparations for Human Rights Violations

The IFCVR shows how, in addition to being direct victims of kidnappings, forced recruitment, arbitrary detentions, physical and psychological torture, forced isappearances, massacres and extrajudicial executions, women also suffered from the death and disappearance of family members. It is likely that violence against children also had a differential impact on women. Although the report, in its section on violence against boys and girls,19 does not point to any gender-based differences, it does state that children accounted for 12.8% of human rights violations, and that abuses committed against them were mainly rape, kidnapping, forced recruitment, and murder. Women suffered the consequences of such acts in their daily life, driving many into displacement. Furthermore, the report documents how women were subject to sexual violence in different forms by both official forces and insurgent groups. Despite the fact that sexual violence is consistently underreported, mainly due to victims feelings of guilt, shame, or (justified) fear of stigmatization or community ostracism, the CVR was able to prove that such abuses were perpetrated mainly by official forces and, to a lesser extent, members of insurgent groups. In fact, the two sides practiced different forms of gender violence. While 83% of rapes were attributable to the state, including multiple rape and rape of pregnant women, insurgent groups were mainly responsible for actions such as forced domestic work; mutilations, including mutilations of a sexual nature; sexual slavery; forced contraception; forced abortion; and forced cohabitation. These abuses usually took place within the insurgent organization itself, against persons forcefully recruited or the population in the controlled areas.